
2357 



VOL XVIII JANUARY, 1919 No. 1 

Reprinted from 

THE JOURNAL OF 

ENGLISH AND GERMANIC 

PHILOLOGY 

FOUNDED BY GUSTAF E. KARSTEN 



Managing Editok 
JULIUS GOEBEL, University of Illinois 

AssoCTATK Editors 

H. S. V. JONES AND G. T. FLOM 
University of Illinois 

Co-operating Editors 

HERMANN COLLITZ, Johns Hopkins University 
GEORGE O. CURME, Northwestern University 
WILLIAM W. LAWRENCE, Columbia University 
CLARK S. NORTHUP, Cornell University 



Subscription Price $3.00 a Volume; Single Numbers $1.00 

PUBLISHED QUARTERLY by THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
URBANA, ILLINOIS, U. S. A. 



THE DATE, AUTHORS, AND CONTENTS OF 
A HANDFULL OF PLEASANT DELIGHTS 

The Handefull of pleasant delites, a miscellany of broadside 
ballads composed "by Clement Robinson and divers others," is 
extant in a single imperfect copy which was printed by Richard 
Jones at London in 1584.^ The book possesses considerable interest 
because of Shakespeare's familiarity with it^; but since it contains 
nothing but ballads, most of which can be proved to have first 
appeared on broadsides, one is somewhat surprised to find how 
extravagantly critics have praised it. Usually, ballads are regard- 
ed as beneath contempt. Thomas Park thought the "Delights" 
far superior to the pieces in A Gorgious Gallery of Gallant In- 
ventions (1578), "being written in general with a modernised tone 
of versification, which must render them more pleasing to modern 
readers. Some few indeed may aspire to be praised for higher 
merit than mere smoothness of verse: particularly . . . [No. 17, 
below, beginning " Ye louing wormes, " etc.], which claims commen- 
dation for apposite metaphor, sarcastic sportiveness, ingenious illus- 
tration, and moral inference"! Mr. Crossley called the Handfull 
"one of the most prized of the poetical book gems of the Ehza- 
bethan period"; Mr. Crawford considers it "a work of consider- 
able merit, containing some notable songs "^; and Sir Sidney Lee 
{Cambridge History of English Literature, III, 249) speaks of it as 
a collection of ''lyric poems." Few persons seem to have recog- 
nized that the poems are street ballads, pure and simple. 

In 1566 the following entry was made in the Stationers' Regis- 
ters*: 

R, Jonnes Recev>d of Rychard Joanes for his lycense for prynting of a boke 
intituled of very pleasaunte Sonetks and storyes in myter by clament 
Robynson [no sum stated] 

• This is now in the British Museum; sign. B.vj is missing. The work was 
reprinted by T. Park (Heliconia, vol. II) in 1815; in facsimile by J. Crossley 
for the Spenser Society (the edition followed in this article) in 1871; and by 
Edward Arber in 1878. 

^See Anders, Shakespeare's Books, pp. 166, 169, 173-174, 181, 199, 269. 

^Englands Parnassus (Oxford, 1913) p. xix. 

*Arber's Transcript, I, 313. (Hereafter cited as Trans.) 



t^o' 



.^1 



^•^ 



"^ Handfull of Pleasant Delights'' 

It has been generally assumed that the extant edition of the Hand- 
full is a re-issue, with additions, of the 1566 Pleasant Sonnets. 
This was suggested by Ritson.^ Collier, in his Extracts from the 
Stationers' Registers,^ thought that the identity of the two works 
was not altogether probable, but succeeded in showing that one or 
two of the ballads that appear in the Handfull were licensed for 
pubHcation before the Pleasant Sonnets. More recently, most 
scholars interested in ballads have beheved that the Pleasant Son- 
nets was a first edition of the Handfull, — among them, Hazhtt,' 
Chappell,* Sir Sidney Lee,® Ebsworth, Arber, and Mr. Harold H. 
Child.^° Ebsworth found among the Bagford ballads a single 
leaf which he believed to belong to "an earher edition" than the 
1584 Handfull}^ Arber did not feel sure that this leaf belonged 
to an earher edition, but he attempted to name the Handfull bal- 
lads that could not have appeared in the 1566 Pleasant Sonnets. 
Still more recently, however, Mr. Crawford, in his edition of 
Englands Parnassus, ^^ has expressed this opinion of the matter: 
"Parts of the work \i.e., the Handfull] must surely have been com- 
posed after A Gorgious Gallery [1578], for I notice that three poems 
in it are made up principally from two poems that appear in its 
predecessor, whole stanzas in each, and several of them coming 
together in the same order, being worded almost exactly alike. . . 
The theory that A Handefull of Pleasant Delights may be identical 
with *A boke of very pleasaunte sonnettes and storyes in myter,' 
by Clement Robinson, licensed to R. Jhones in 1566, can hardly be 
entertained when one finds that it is in parts but a rehash of pieces 
in A Gorgious Gallery; but it is possible that Robinson gave a place 
in his anthology to poems that were previously printed in his book 
of sonnets and stories. " Mr. Crawford gives no references, but he 
was referring to the three ballads numbered 4, 6, and 23 below, 

* Bibliographia Poetica, p. 311. 

* See especially I, 144. 

^ Handbook to Early English Literature, p. 515. 

* Popular Music, I, 91. 

* Diet. Nat. Biog., article "Clement Robinson." 

" Cambridge History of English Literature, III, 190. 

"The leaf is reprinted in Ebsworth's Bagford Ballads, I, 41 f., and also in 
Arber's edition of the Handfull (hereafter cited as Arber), pp. xv-xvi. 

"Page xix. Seccombe and Allen {The Age of Shakespeare, 1903, I, 56) 
positively declare that "in 1584 appeared A Handefull of Pleasant Delites, a 
collection of, up to that time, impublished lyrics." 



Gift 
Antho- 

APR 'J: 1919 



<^ 



Rollins 



^ 



and to the ballads in the Gorgious Gallery^^ called "The Louer 
2r exhorteth his Lady to bee constant, to the Tune of Attend thee 

^-j go play thee," and "The Louer wounded with his Ladies beauty 

£ craueth mercy, to the Tune of where is the hfe that late I led. " 

A mere glance at the two sets of ballads turns Mr. Crawford's 
statement like a boomerang against him, and shows indisputably 
that No. 4 had been pubUshed at least before 1578, the date of 
the Gallery; for it begins "Attend thee, go play thee," and this is 
the tune of one of the Gallery ballads. "The Louer exhorteth his 
Lady to bee constant, " therefore, cannot possibly have been written 
before No. 4 was printed. Nos. 6 and 23, as the notes below will 
show, had almost certainly appeared before the Pleasant Sonnets 
was licensed in 1566. 

There is every reason to beUeve that the Handfull was actually 
issued in 1566. The absence of a license-fee is not unprecedented," 
and the difference in title between the 1566 entry and the 1584 
edition is of no importance. The Gorgious Gallery itself was 
registered under two other names before its present title was de- 
cided on;'* and it should be observed that the running title of both 
the Handfull and the single leaf discovered by Ebsworth is " Sonets 
and Histories, to sundrie new Tunes, " a title much more appropriate 
for the 1566 entry than for the Handfull itself. This single leaf 
beyond all doubt belonged to a different edition: it has the page 
signature D 2, and bears the last three stanzas of No. 22, all of No. 
23, and the first twelve lines of No. 24, and thus corresponds exactly 
(save that it has one additional line) to sign. D 4 and verso of the 
Handfull. The edition to which it belonged, then, presimiably 
had two signatures, or four pages, fewer XhsintYit Handfull\ and as 
three or four of the ballads printed in the latter before sign. D 4 
can beyond all question be proved to have been written after 
the year 1572, it seems probable that this leaf was part of an 
edition earher than that of 1584, perhaps of the 1566 Pleasant Son- 
nets}^ The title-page of the Handfull, it is almost superfluous to 

"Collier's reprint, pp. 49, 51. 

'* See the Stationers' Registers for the year 1588, when no license-fees are 
given for about half of the entries. 

» See Trans., II, 313. 

"But there were many editions of the Handfull later than 1584. It was 
registered for publication on July 3, 1601; December 13, 1620; August 4, 1626; 



*'A Handful! of Pleasant Delights" 

add, in itself clearly shows that there had been an earher issue. 
It announces that the book contains "sundrie new Sonets . . . 
Newly deuised to the newest tunes . . . With new additions of 
certain Songs to verie late deuised Notes, not commonly knowen, 
nor vsed heretofore."" But this is false from beginning to end. 
Like the typical dishonest stationer whose "character" George 
Wither was later so vividly to portray, Jones provided this new 
title-page to delude customers into buying old wares. Most of 
the ballads had been printed before 1566, and the tunes were so old 
and are now so hard to trace that even William Chappell could 
include only four or five of them in his Popular Music of the Olden 
Time. 

Of Clement Robinson, whose name appears on the title-page of 
the Handfull, little is known, but it is perfectly obvious that he 
must have been at the height of his ballad-writing powers in 1566, 
when his name appeared in the Registers as the author of the 
Pleasant Sonnets. Hazlitt {Handbook, p. 515) thought that he 
was the C. R. whose initials are signed to a prose broadside on a 
"marueilous straunge Fishe,"^^ which was printed in 1569, and 
Collmann (Ballads and Broadsides, pp. 81-82) has plausibly sug- 
gested that he was the Robinson who in 1566 entered into a ballad- 
flyting with Thomas Churchyard; but, however that be, the very 
fact that Robinson's name adorned the title-page of the 1584 edition 
strengthens the presumption that the book was originally issued 
in 1566. 

Arber^^ named nine ballads that "were not in this First Edition" 
of 1566. They may be enumerated here, with his reasons for their 
in exclusion: 

1. No. 25, because it was registered in 1566-67. This is wrong. 

2. Nos. 27 and 32, because an answer to the ballad from which 
they derived their tune was registered in 1567-68. But this is 
not a valid reason for dating these ballads after 1566. 

3. Nos. 13 and 21, because "The Story of ij faythful Lovers 
&c" was licensed by Richard Jones in 1568-69. This is wrong, 

April 29, 1634; and April 4, 1655: Arber's Trans., Ill, 187, IV, 44, 166, 318; 
Eyre's Trans., I, 470. 

"The italics are mine. 

" Reprinted in Lilly's 79 Black-Letter Ballads, p. 145. 

" Pages ix-x. 



Rollins 

for the entry need not refer to No. 13 (" Pyramus and Thisbie"), 
and cannot refer to No. 21, which tells no story at all. 

4. No. 29, because it was Hcensed in 1576. This is correct. 

5. No. 7, because the tune comes from ballads licensed in 1580. 
This is correct. 

6. No. 14, because its tune was taken from a ballad registered in 
1582. This is correct. 

7. No. 16, because the tune was derived from a ballad not 
registered until 1567-68. This is wrong. 

From the following notes it will be seen that only three of the 
nine ballads listed by Arber appeared after 1566, while others which 
he failed to name are here pointed out. The notes may help to give a 
clearer idea of what the first edition could have contained, and some 
of them (as Nos. 2, 3, and 29, which produce new facts about Leon- 
ard Gibson and Thomas Richardson and help to establish the date 
of Misogonus) may perhaps be found of independent value. Points 
previously made by other investigators are fully acknowledged 
below. 

1. "A Nosegaie alwaies sweet, for Louers to send for Tokens, 
of loue, at Newyeres tide, or for fairings. ..." 

A book called " a nose gaye " was licensed by John King in 1557 
{Trans., I, 75), and Collier {Extracts, I, 3) thought that this might 
be our ballad. The identification is very doubtful. Arber's 
reference (p. vi) to "a newe yeres gefte," 1567 {Trans., I, 336), is 
not apropos; but the ballad of "A Smelhnge Nosegaye," which had 
been owned by WilUamson and which was registered by Charle- 
wood on January 15, 1581-2 {Trans. II, 406), is undoubtedly our 
ballad. No. 1, then, was very probably added to the 1584 edition. 
Thomas Evans, who reprints the "Nosegaie" and several other of 
the "Delights" in his Old Ballads (1810), thinks that Ophelia al- 
ludes to this ballad in her rambUngs about rosemary, fennel, etc. 
{Hamlet, IV, v). 

2. "L. Gibsons Tantara. ... To the tune of, Down right 
Squire." (Signed) Finis. L. G. 

This ballad was not registered. The tune (cf. No. 13, 
below), however, is old: a ballad "To the tune of The dowTieryght 
squyre" is preserved in Bodleian MS. Ashmole 48 {Songs and 
Ballads, ed. Thomas Wright, 1860, p. 191), which Wright 



"A Handfull of Pleasant Delights'' 

dates at circa 1559.^° L. Gibson is without doubt the Leonard 
Gibson who signed his ballad, "A very proper Dittie, To the tune 
of Lightie Loue," with the full name. His Tower oj Trustinesse, a 
work in prose and verse, is dated 1555 in Lilly's Ballads, p. xxx, 
and 1534 in HazUtt's Handbook, p. 228. Another work is dated 
1582 in Ritson's Bihliographia Poetica, p. 219, and in Crawford's 
Englands Parnassus, p. xx. The "proper Dittie" was printed by 
Richard Jones (fl. 1564-1602) without date (Lilly, p. 113). If 
no more facts are forthcoming, it is not unreasonable to suppose 
that No. 2 was included in the 1566 Pleasant Sonnets, especially 
since a Leonard Gibson, almost certainly our balladist, was a 
student and chorister at New College, Oxford, in 1564-65 (cf. 
Clark's Register of Oxford, II, ii, 22; Foster's Alumni Oxonienses, 
Early Series, II, 562). Perhaps his study at Oxford suggested the 
"Tantara," which, as Professor Kittredge has reminded me, was a 
phrase well known, because "At tuba horribili sonitu taratantara 
dixit, " a sentence in a fragment of Ennius, was quoted by Priscian. 
For other uses of "Tantara," see McKerrow's Nashe, I, 118, II, 
310, IV, 290; Lilly's Ballads, pp. 105, 292; Tottel's Miscellany, ed. 
Arber, p. 120; Marriage of Wit and Wisdom, 1579 (Shakespeare 
Society ed., pp. 59-61); Collier's Extracts, II, 81, 187-8 {Trans., II, 
348,434). 

3. "A proper new Song made by a Studient in Cambridge, To the 

tune of I wish to see those happie daies. " (Signed) Finis quod 

Thomas Richardson, sometime Student in Cambridge. 

It is pleasant, and easy, to identify this Richardson who left 

Cambridge because 'love caught him from his books,' and who 

wrote this ballad of warning "because that he sufficiently hath 

tried the female kind"! In the ninth stanza he writes: 

Here Cambridge now I bid farewell, / adue to Students all: 
Adue vnto the Colledges, / and vnto Gunuil Hall. 

Thanks to this, he can unquestionably be identified with the 
Thomas Richardson, aged eighteen, who was admitted pensioner 
to Caius College on April 28, 1572 (Biog. Hist, of Gonville and Caius 

'* Many of the ballads in this MS. were licensed at Stationers' Hall during 
1560-66, however. Various interesting facts about the manuscript, some of 
which have considerable bearing on the ballad of "Chevy Chase," which is 
preserved there in its oldest known form, will be pointed out in an article pre- 
sently to appear in Modern Language Notes. 



Rollins 

College, ed. John Venn, I, 69); and in all probability he was the 
"T. Richeson" whose name is signed to a ballad "To the toune of 
The raire & greatest gift,"" preserved in B. M. MS. Cotton. Vesp. 
A. XXV (ed. Boeddeker, Jahrbuch filr romanische und englische 
Sprache, N. F., II, 362). His " proper new Song " was not licensed, 
and the tune is not mentioned by Chappell; but this ballad was 
not in the first edition of the Handfull. 

4. "The scofife of a Ladie, as pretie as may be, to a yong man that 
went a wooing." 
This begins "Attend thee, go play thee, / Sweet loue I am 
busie;" and in the Gorgious Gallery, 1578 (ColUer's reprint, p. 49), 
there is a ballad written in imitation of it, "The Louer exhorteth 
his Lady to bee constant, to the Tune of Attend thee go play thee:' 
In the Marriage of Wit and Wisdom, 1579 (Shakespeare Society 
ed., p. 20), Wantonness sings a song "to the tune of 'Attend the 
goe playe the. ' " It is only reasonable, then, to suppose that No. 4 
was in the first edition of the Handfull. It is odd that 
CoUier nowhere mentioned the appearance of the first five stanzas 
(with many verbal dissimilarities) of this ballad in his much quoted 
" MS. of the reign of James I " (cf. No. 15, below). 

5. "An answer as pretie to the scof of his Lady, by the yongman 

that came a wooing." (Signed) Finis. Peter Picks. 
This is in the same measure, and was probably written by the 
same person, as No. 4, which without doubt it immediately fol- 
lowed. Peter Picks is undoubtedly a pseudonym. 

6. "Dame Beauties replie to the Louer late at libertie: and now 

complaineth himselfe to be her captiue. Intituled: Where is 
the life that late I led." (Signed) Finis. I. P. 
This is a reply to a ballad which began. 

Where is the life that late I led? 
Where are those [happy days]? 

(cf. Taming of the Shrew, IV, i, 143; 2 Henry IV, V, iii, 147; Anders, 
Shakespeare's Books, p. 181), and which was registered by Richard 
Jones, the publisher of the 1566 Sonnets and the 1584 Handfull, 
about March, 1566 {Trans., I, 308), as "A newe ballet of one who 

" "The reare and grettyst gyfte of all" is the first line of a ballad on King 
Solomon (very probably that registered by Walker on March 4, 1559-60, 
Trans., I, 127), which is preserved in MS. Ashmole 48 (ed. Wright, p. 44). 



"A Handfull of Pleasant Delights" 

myslykeng his lybertie soughte his owne bondage through his 
owne folly." No. 6 begins, 

The life that erst thou ledst my friend, 

was pleasant to thine eies : 
But now the losse of libertie, 

thou seemest to despise, 

and evidently appeared shortly after the original "newe ballet." 
Both ballads were probably suggested by one beginning, 

My frynd, the lyf I lead at all 

By thes fewe wordes perceave youe shall, 

which was registered (Trans., I, 306) a few days before "A newe 
ballet" and which is preserved in Bodleian MS. Ashmole 48 (ed. 
Wright, p. 38). It seems certain that No. 6 had appeared before 
the 1566 Pleasant Sonnets was compiled, and that the ballad of "The 
Louer wounded with his Ladies beauty craueth mercy, to the 
Tune of where is the life that late I led, " printed in the Gorgious 
Gallery, 1578 (ColUer's reprint, p. 51), is an imitation of it, not vice 
versa. The tune of "Where is the life that late I led" was, as No. 
23 below shows, exactly the same as "Appelles," an additional 
proof of the priority of the Handfull ballad over the Gallery one. 

7. "A new Courtly Sonet, of the Lady Green sleeues. To the new 

tune of Greensleeues. " 
Chappell {Popular Music, I, 228) believed that the tune of 
Green Sleeves must belong to Henry VIIFs reign; but the name 
occurs in the Stationers' Registers for the first time on September 3, 
1580(rra»5., II, 376), when Richard Jones hcensed "A newe northen 
Dittye of ye Ladye greene sieves. " Several other " Green Sleeves " 
ballads were licensed within a short space {Trans., II, 378, 384, 388, 
400). No. 7, then, as Arber suggested, must have been added to 
the 1584 edition of the Handfull. 

8. "A proper sonet, wherin the Louer dolefully sheweth his grief. 

... To the tune of, Row wel ye Marriners. " 
The tune is noted in Popular Music, I, 112. A ballad called 
"Roowe well ye marynors &c" was licensed by W. Pekering in 
1565-66, and was widely imitated and moralized in the months 
that followed {Trans., I, 305, 340, 342, 355, 360, 362, 401). No. 
^ it seems reasonable to assume, was written in 1565-66, 

8 



Roili?is 

when the original ballad of "Row Well" was at the height of its 
popularity. 

9. "The Historie of Diana and Acteon. To the Quarter Braules. " 
"A ballett intituled the Cater bralles bothe Wytty and mery" 

was Hcensed by Thomas Colwell in 1565-66 (Collier's Extracts, I, 
120; Trans., I, 298). No. 9, then, could have appeared m the 1566 
Pleasant Sonnets. Various broadside versions of this ballad are 
extant: see Roxburghe Ballads, II, 520. The first line, "Diana and 
her darlings deare," is quoted in Richard Brome's Dawowe/Ze, V, i, 
and in his Jvvial Crew, III {Dramatic Works, ed. Pearson, I, 455; 
III, 396). 

10. A fragmentary ballad on the power of Venus. 

This imitates Elderton's ballad, "The Pangs of Love" (re- 
printed in Collier's Old Ballads, Percy Society, I, 25, and else- 
where), with the "Lady, lady" refrain. Elderton's "Pangs" was 
registered m 1559 {Trans., I, 96), and was perhaps the most widely 
imitated ballad written during the reign of Elizabeth. No. 10 
was ahnost certainly written sometime in the period between 
1559 and 1565, when innumerable other imitations and moraliza- 
tions were pouring from the press. 

11. "The Louer complaineth the losse of his Ladie, To Cicilia 
Pauin." (Signed) Finis. I. Tomson. 

These lines in the opening stanzas of the ballad, 
Heart, what makes thee thus to be, 

in extreame heauinesse? . . . 
Why would I cloake from her presence, 
My loue and faithful! diligence? . . . 
No, no, I wil shew my woe, 
in this calamitie, 
indicate that this was perhaps the ballad of "a harte Declarynge 
his heavenes wyshyng that yt were knowen, " which Richard Jones 
licensed several months before the Pleasant Sonnets {Trans., I, 
297). It is hopeless to try to identify I. Tomson with any of the 
very many John Tomsons who were students at Oxford and 
Cambridge in 1565-84. 

12. "The Louer compareth some subtile Suters to the Hunter. 
To the tune of the Painter." 

No details about the tune are in Popular Music, I, 161 ; but, 
as Arber (p. viii) notes, A. Lacy hcensed a ballad of "ye paynter 



"A Handfull of Pleasant Delights'' 

in his pryntyshod" in 1565-66, T. Colwell licensed a moralization 
in 1566-67, and W. Griffith licensed ''a ballett intituled the paynter 
moralyzed" in 1568 (Trans., I, 297, 331, 380). It may also be 
observed that in John Pikering's Horestes, 1567 (Brandl's Quellen, 
pp. 517-18), one of the stage directions is, "Enter the Vyce, 
synginge this song to ye tune of ' the Paynter. ' " The Vice sings 
four stanzas in exactly the same measure as our ballad. That 
No. 12 was in the 1566 edition is highly probable. 

13. "A new Sonet of Pyramus and Thisbie. To the, Downe right 
Squier." (Signed) Finis. I. Tomson. 

For the tune, see No. 2, above; for the author, No. 11, above. 
"A boke intituled Perymus and Thesbye" was licensed by Griffith 
in July, 1563 (Trans., I, 215), and a ballad would inevitably have 
followed the book, or pamphlet. 

14. "A Sonet of a Louer. ... To Galen o Custure me: sung at 
euerie lines end." 

The ballad of "Callin o custure me" was "tolerated" to John 
Aide on March 10, 1581-2 (Trans., 11,407); our "Sonet," then, 
as Arber (p. x) points out, cannot have been in the 1566 edition.^ 

15. "A proper Sonet, Intituled, Maid, wil you marrie. To the 
Blacke Almaine. " 

As Arber (p. vi) noticed, Griffith licensed a ballad, "Mayde Will 
you mary moralyzed," in 1570 (Trans., I, 437). Shortly after- 
ward Stephen Peele's "Balade expressyng the fames," to be sung 
to "The Black Almaine, "^^ was licensed (ibid., 439). Perhaps 
these entries indicate that our "Sonet" was not written before 
1566, although moralizations often appeared when re-issues of 
ballads were made, many years after their original pubhca- 
tion. Collier printed No. 15 (or rather three stanzas of it, all 

** For the tune, see the notes to Malone's Shakspeare, XVII, 424-6; and 
Anders, Shakespeare's Books, 169-170, 268. 

" The tune is evidently old. In John Phillip's comedy of Patient Grissell, 
1566, sign. E ii, the Marquis sings a ballad "to the tune of the latter Almain." 
An idea of the large number of "Almains" known to ballad-writers may be 
gained from Anthony Munday's Banquet of Dainty Conceits, 1588, where there 
are ballads to the tunes of the "Masker's AUemaigne, commonly called the 
Olde Allemaigne," the "Venetian AUemaigne," "AUemaigne Measure," 
"Scottish Allemaigne," and "Mounsieures Allemaigne." See also No. 31 
below. 



Rollins 

slightly changed) in his Extracts (II, 6-7), prefaced by the note, 
"The original ballad . . . has been preserved in a MS. belonging 
to the Editor, but we are not aware that it exists any where in 
print"!" 

16. "The ioy of Virginitie: to. The Gods of loue. " 

This is a moralization of Elderton's "Gods of Love," which 
was pubUshed in 1562: this date can be estabUshed by the fact that 
William Birch's "The complaint of a sinner, vexed with paine. . . 
After W[illiam] E[Iderton] moralized," was printed in 1562H53 
(Trans., I, 205; reprinted in Colhnann's Ballads and Broadsides, 
No. 7). Innumerable moralizations, answers, and imitations 
appeared during the next four or live years, and No. 16 is not im- 
probably one of the ballads actually registered (Trans., I, 272, 307, 
355). Elderton's ballad was imitated in George Turbervile's 
Epitaphes, 1565 ?, 1567, and in many plays printed circa 1566. 
It seems almost certain, then, that No. 16 had been printed before 
1566. 

'« This remark is incredible, for in his first volume of Extracts Collier had 
exerted himself to identify the ballads published in the Handfull with ballads 
licensed before lvS66, and he musi have known that "Maid, Will You Marry?" 
was printed there. One might suspect that he made this statement to 
gain confidence in the authenticity of his MS. The MS. is described and a 
table of its contents given in the Extracts, II, vii-x, but naturally it has long been 
an object of suspicion (cf. Professor C. H. Firth's comment in the recently 
published Shakespeare's England, Oxford, 1916, II, 537). Those who are 
interested in the matter and who wish to draw their own conclusions will find 
it profitable to compare the ballad of "All in a Garden Green" (ct. No. 18 
below), printed in the Extr cts, I, 196, with "A merrye new ballad of a countrye 
wench and a clowne" printed in the Shirburn Ballads, p. 220; Collier's "Lady 
Jane's Lament" {Extracts, I, 72) with the printed ballad included in the Ballad 
Society's Ballads from MSS., I, 427; Collier's "The Damned Soule in Hell" 
{Exiracts, I, 117) with "The pittitull lamentation of a damned soule" (Shirburn 
Ballads, p. 260); Collier's "Kit hath Lost her Key" (Extracts, I, 55) with the 
ballad printed from Royal MSS. App. 58 by E. Flugel in Anglia, XII, 261; 
Collier's "Wine, Women, and Dice" (Extracts, II, 69, evidently written to fit 
the entries in the Transcript, I, 293, 296) with "A notable Instrucyon for all 
men to beware the abuses of dyce, wyne, & women," which is preserved in MS. 
Cotton. Vesp. A. XXV (ed. Beoddeker, Jahrbuch fur romanische und englische 
Sprache, N. P., II, 364); Collier's ballad of "Awake and Arise" (Extract.-, I, 
186, and notice especially his explanation there) with a copy (of whose existence 
he was unaware) preserved in MS. Ashmole 48 (ed. Wright, p. 32). Quite a 
number of ballads in Collier's MS. fit exactly entries in the Registers and yet 
are not referred to in the Extracts. William Chappell, in his Popular Music, 

11 



"A Handfidl of Pleasant Delights" 

17. "A warning for Wooers, that they be not ouerhastie, . . . To, 
SaUsburie Plaine." 

This ballad, beginning "Ye louing wormes come learne of me," 
R. W. Bond prints among the early poems of John Lyly {Works, 
III, 465). In marginal glosses he notes resemblances between 
the phrases and ideas in the ballad and in Lyly's Euphues, Cam- 
paspe, etc., and remarks (ibid., 438), "Few, I believe, will be found 
to question the correctness of my attribution oi . . . A Warning 
for Wooers" to Lyly. Nevertheless, as Collier {Extracts, I, 110) 
long ago pointed out, Richard Jones licensed No. 17 in July, 1565, 
as "a ballett intituled ye lovynge Wormes comme learne of me" 
{Trans. I, 293), at which time Lyly was a mere lad. Cf . also No. 20, 
below. Halliwell-Phillipps, in his Memoranda on Love's Labour's Lost, 
p. 70, says that the name of Shakespeare's comedy may have been 
suggested by lines in the ballad of "Ye loving worms." 

18. "An excellent Song of an outcast Louer. To, All in a Garden 
green. " 

As Arber (p. viii) noticed, "a ballett intituled All in a garden 
grene/betwene ij lovers" was registered by Pekering in \S6S{Trans., I, 
295). For comments on this ballad, see foot-note 24. It is hard 
to see how the septenaries of No. 18 could be sung to the tune of 
"All in a Garden Green," a ballad written in a peculiar stanza 
form; but that No. 18 had actually appeared before Jones licensed 
his Pleasant Sonnets is proved by the fact that its first two stanzas 
are copied verbatim in Bodleian MS. Ashmole 48 (ed. Wright, 
p. 183; cf. foot-note 20 above). 

19. "The complaint of a woman Louer, To the tune of. Raging 
loue. " 

"Raging Love" was a tune derived from Lord Surrey's "The 
louer comforteth himself with the worthinesse of his loue, " a poem 
in TotteVs Miscellany (ed. Arber, p. 14), and reprinted as a broadside 
in 1557, 1560-61, and 1561-62 {Trans., I, 75, 154, 177). Perhaps 

accepted this MS. without question, somewhat to the detriment of his other- 
wise invaluable work. The MS. also contains vulgar "jests" of Peele, Tarlton, 
and Elderton (for two stanzas about Elderton, see Popular Music, I, 107), 
and some light is perhaps thrown on their composition by the preface to Collier's 
Few Odds and Ends, for Cheerful Friends (25 copies, privately printed, 1870). 
A comparison of the ballads in that book with those in the MS. may also prove 
illuminating. 

12 



Rollins 

the tune indicates that No. 19 had been printed early enough for 
inclusion in the 1566 Pleasant Sonnets. 

20. "A proper sonet, Intituled: I smile to see how you deuise. 
To anie pleasant tune. " 

I can find nothing that assists in dating No. 20. Bond, "with 
some doubts," attributes this ballad to Lyly {Works, III, 440, 468), 
but he is not convincing (cf. No. 17, above). For example, he 
also credits Lyly {ibid., 463) with the authorship of a ballad 
" In lingeringe Loue mislikinge growes, " which he prints from Raw- 
linson MS. Poet. 148; but there is, I observe, another copy of this 
ballad in MS. Cotton. Vesp. A. XXV (ed. Boeddeker, loc. cit., 
II, 211), and the ballad itself was licensed for publication by William 
Griffith in 1564 {Trans., I, 238). 

21. "A Sonet of two faithfull Louers, exhorting one another to be 
constant. To the tune of Kypascie. " 

I can find nothing that assists in dating this ballad. 

22. "A proper new Dity: Intituled. Fie vpon Loue and al his 
lawes. To the tune of lumber me. " 

No. 22 appears on the leaf, sign. D 2, which Ebsworth found; 
and therefore one may well believe that it was in the first edition. 

23. "The Louer being wounded with his Ladis beutie, requireth 
mercy. To the tune of Apelles. " 

"The Louer wounded with his Ladies beauty craueth mercy, 
To the Tune of where is the Ufe that late I led," a ballad in the 
Gorgioiis Gallery, 1578 (ColHer's reprint, p. 51), borrows its title 
and a number of lines from No. 23. Although the priority of the 
Handfull ballad is hardly questionable, it may be further noted that 
this ballad imitates a poem by Wyatt {Tottel's Miscellany, ed. 
Arber, p. 34) beginning, "The liuely sparkes, that issue from those 
eyes," while there is no such imitation in the Gallery ballad. 
Furthermore, a ballad "to ye tune of Appelles" was licenced by 
Colwell in 1565-66; and shortly afterwards, in the same year, 
Grifl5th licensed a ballad " to the tune of ye fyrst Appelles" {Trans., 
I, 298, 312, noted by Arber, p. viii), either of which may have been 
No. 23. A song " to the tune of Appelles" is in Googe's Epitaphes, 
which was printed in 1562-63 (cf. CoWier's Extracts,!, 120). The 
title of the Gallery ballad shows that the tune of "Appelles" was 
the same as "Where is the life that late I led," for the date of 



"A Handfull of Pleasant Delights" 

which see No. 6, above. There can be no doubt that No. 23 had 
been printed before 1566. 

24. "The lamentation of a woman being wrongfully defamed. 
To the tune of Damon & Pithias. " 

Arber (p. viii) refers to "a ballett intituled tow lamentable songes 
Pithias and Damon," licensed by Lacy in 1565-66 {Trans., 1, 304). 
Our ballad imitates the measure of the song, "Damon my friend 
must die, " sung by Pithias in the play of Damon and Pithias (Dods- 
ley-HazUtt's Old Plays, IV, 43; preserved in MS. Cotton. Vesp. 
A. XXV, ed. Boeddeker, loc. cit. 210). This play seems to have 
been the work of Richard Edwards, and in that case was performed 
at Christmas, 1564. But "A Newe Ballade of a Louer ... To 
the tune of Damon and Pithias" (Lilly's Ballads, p. 24), which 
was licensed in 1563 {Trans., I, 204), was also written in this 
measure. In John Phillip's Patient Grissell, 1566, sign. C 4, "Here 
Grissell Singith a songe, to the tune of Damon & Pithias. " No. 24 
must have been in the 1566 Pleasant Sonnets. 

25. "A proper Song, Intituled: Fain wold I haue a pretie thing to 
giue vnto my Ladie. To the tune of lustie Gallant." 

In MS. Ashmole 48 (ed. Wright, p. 195) there is a ballad on 
Troilus and Cressida (registered in 1565-66, Trans., I, 300), "To 
the tune of Fayne woold I fynd sum pretty thynge to geeve unto 
my lady," a tune unquestionably named from No. 25. Thomas 
Colwell licensed a moraUzation, entitled "A fayne wolde I have 
a godly thynge to shewe vnto my ladye," in 1566-67 {Trans., I, 
340: Arber, p. ix). No. 25 was beyond all doubt printed before 
the Pleasant Sonnets was registered. 

26. "A proper wooing Song, intituled: Maide will ye loue me: ye 
or no? To the tune of the Marchaunts Daughter went ouer 
the fielde." 

I can find nothing to assist in dating this ballad, though it may 
have been suggested by Wyatt's "To a ladie to answere directly 
with yea or nay" {Tottel's Miscellany, ed. Arber, p. 41). 

27. "The painefull plight of a Louer oppressed with the beautiful! 
looks of his Lady. To the tune of, I loued her ouer wel." 

The fact (noted by Arber, p. ix) that in 1567-68 {Trans., 1, 
362) Griffith licensed a ballad called "A ffayrewell to Alas I lover 
you over well &c," indicates that No. 27 was written circa 1566, 

14 



Rollins 

when the ballad from which it derives its tune was havmg some 
vogue. This tune is used also for No. 32. 

28. " A faithfull vow of two constant Louers. To the new Rogero. " 
The tune of "Rogero" is in Popular Music, I, 93 flf., but 

nothing is there told of the " New Rogero. " Elderton's " Lamenta- 
tion of FolUe," which is to be sung to the latter tune, seems to 
have been printed after February 15, 1584 (cf. Collmann's Ballads 
and Broadsides, p. 1 18). No. 28 may have been added to the 1584 
edition of the Handfull. 

29. "A sorrowfull Sonet, made by M. George mannington, at 
Cambridge Castle. To the tune of Labandala Shot." 

"A woefull ballade made by master George mannyngton an 
houre before he suffered at Cambridge castell 1576" was Ucensed, 
as was long ago pointed out, by Richard Jones on November 7, 
1576 {Trans., II, 304). This is the most famous ballad in the 
entire collection, primarily because Jonson burlesqued it in East- 
ward Ho. Many other scornful references to it by EUzabethan 
writers could be pointed out. Samuel Rowlands, in his Melan- 
cholie Knight, 1615 {Works, ed. Hunterian Club, II, No. xxiv, p. 
37), refers to "Thou scuruie Ballat of / wale in woe"; and the first 
line is burlesqued in Rowley's Match at Midnight, V, i, where 
Randall sings, "Hur wail in woe, hur plunge in pain." No one, I 
beheve, has noticed that in the old play of Misogonus (Brandl's 
Quellen, p. 456) one of the characters sings a "songe to the 
tune of Labondolose Hoto," beginning, 

O mighty Jove, some pitty take 
One me poore wretch for christis sake. 
Greif doth me gripe, pa>Tie doth me pinch, 
Willfull dispite my harte doth wrinch, 

which not only borrows Mannington's tune but also unmistakably 
imitates his style and diction. This imitation is of the highest 
importance, for it makes conclusive the argument some time ago 
advanced by Professor Kittredge {Jotir. Germ. Phil., Ill, 339 ff.), 
that Misogonus was written, not in 1560 as ColUer suggested, but 
circa 1578. Professor Kittredge holds that Laurence Johnson, 
B.A., 1573-4, M.A., 1577, of Cambridge, wrote Misogonus; and 
this indirect allusion to Mannington, who was hanged at Cambridge 
in 1576, undoubtedly favors his argument. R. W. Bond {Early 
Plays from the Italian, p. 171) thinks that Misogonus and its 



' ' A Handfull of Pleasant Delights ' ' 

songs were written about 1560, and that the play was revised to its 
present form about 1576, although the old songs were retained. 
But evidently the song quoted above does not favor his theory. 

30. "A proper Sonet, of an vnkinde Damsell, to her faithful Louer. 
To, the nine Muses." 

Attention should be called to the fact that this ballad is incor- 
rectly named, for it is not supposed to be written by "an vnkinde 
Damsell," but is a complaint made by a man against a faithless 
mistress. Perhaps this is another instance of how the unscrupulous 
Mr. Richard Jones tried to deceive prospective buyers into believing 
that the Handfull was made up of new delights. The ballad is an 
imitation of Surrey's "The louer describes his restlesse state" 
(Tottel's Miscellany, ed. Arber, p. 24). The former begins, 

The ofter that I view and see, 
That plesant face and faire beautie, 

whereto my heart is bound: 
The neer my Mistresse is to me, 
My health is farthest off I see: 

and fresher is my wound: 
Like as the flame doth quench by fire, 

or streams consiune by raigne. . . . 

Surrey's poem begins. 

As oft as I behold and so 

The soueraigne bewtie that me bound: 

The nier my comfort is to me, 
Alas the fresher is my wound. 

As flame doth quenche by rage of fire, 
And running stremes consimie by raine. . . . 

It seems probable that this ballad was in the 1566 edition. 

31. "The Louer complaineth the absence of his Ladie, wisheth for 
death. To, the new Almaine. " 

I can find out nothing about this ballad. For other ' ' Almains," 
see footnote 23 above. 

32. "The Louer compareth him self to the painful Falconer. To 
the tune, I loued her ouer wel. " 

The tune indicates that this ballad was probably in the 1566 
edition. Cf. No, 27, above. 

To summarize: Nos. 3, 7, 14, and 29 were certainly not in the 
1566 edition; perhaps Nos. 1 and 15 were not; and there is no evi- 

i6 



Rollins 

dence to show whether or not Nos. 20, 21, 26, 28, and 31 were 
printed by 1566 or were added to the 1584 edition. When the 
Pleasant Sonnets was prepared for the press, it certainly contained 
many of the ballads later to be published in the 1584 Handfull; 
and that the Sonnets was actually printed in 1566 hardly admits 
of doubt. 

Hyder E. Rollins. 
Harvard University. 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 




013 999 187 4 e> 



